Foster Care in Clark County
A Report for the Nevada Community Foundation's Foster Care Task Force

Over a two-week period, in late May 2006, Christina Sutherland Consultants to Philanthropy conducted an assessment of the current foster care services and issues in Clark County Nevada. The project included reviews of more than 60 nonprofit organizations’ web sites, KLAS-TV, The Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas Review Journal.com, Sandstone Online, the Supreme Court of Nevada and KNPR interviews with key stakeholders in the community. In addition, several Clark County Department of Family Services staff as well as other community-based organization (CBO) staff were interviewed for this report.

This compiled information provides a snapshot of the current situation from which the task force can begin a process to understand and categorize the issues and gaps in the community related to foster care today, as well as resources already engaged toward these issues.

As is understood by most in this Task Force, issues related to foster care in Clark County are numerous, including prevention and counseling, emergency or crisis situations involving a child in need of protection, proper diagnosis of mental and behavioral health issues, substance use, the lack of foster homes, juvenile justice issues and the court system, transitioning out of foster care, state and county systems in transition, federal agencies, the educational system and the list goes on.

This report, while documenting some of the key organizations providing resources in Clark County, is not intended as a resource guide. Rather, the identification of needs and services should serve as a backdrop to illustrate the complexities and major resources engaged, identify gaps, and serve as a vehicle to begin a visioning process for the future work of the Task Force.

The Needs, the Facts and the Gaps

Through interviews with stakeholders as well as CBO and state and press websites, the following needs and issues were illuminated.

General

¹ Department of Family Services Task Force questionnaire.

Education²

² Data is derived from a report by the Casey Family Foundation.

Child Haven Emergency and Prevention Services

While this is not an exhaustive airing of the totality of needs, facts and gaps in this area, the information above illuminates a vast population of children that systems and services are not keeping up with.

Emergency Services including Prevention

In an emergency situation, where a child needs protection, there are several 24-hour Clark County hotlines:

To report child abuse or neglect:
» Child Protective Services (CPS) Hotline 702-399-0081

For domestic violence:
» Safe Place 1-866-827-3723
» Safe Nest Domestic Crisis Hotline in Las Vegas 646-4981

In the recent review of the 79 child deaths in Clark County, it was found that on eight attempts, the average wait time for the CPS hotline during the first week in April was 45 minutes. Staff at CPS is reportedly working on this issue.

Child Haven Emergency Center, within the Clark County DFS, provides temporary care and treatment for abused, neglected and abandoned children between 3 days and 17 years of age. This is generally the first stop for children placed in protective custody by police or DFS workers. Child Haven then contracts with licensed shelter homes and other service providers in the community to meet the specific needs of the child.

According to Clark County staff, Child Haven is always full to overflowing, but it is currently at a crisis point, with babies sometimes lined up in the cafeteria. Increased Methamphetamine use, particularly in Clark County, has contributed to a spike in newborns needing to be placed at Child Haven. As a result, 308 children in 2005 (25% of the total population in child protective services) were in need of protection from the court due primarily to testing positive for drugs at birth. Sixty percent of children in county custody are there because of substance use in the home, a majority of which cases involved Methamphetamine use. The number of dependency petitions increased 25% last year, while the total Clark County population grew by only 6% from 2003-2004.

Recently, there have been numerous articles and interviews indicating that there are open beds in residential treatments facilities at the same time that kids are waiting in Child Haven Emergency Center. Large caseloads, as well as issues related to Medicaid reimbursements, were cited as contributing to this situation. These residential treatment facilities are critical to the fabric of services available in the community. Staff at the county level are concerned that the treatment centers will change their business model in an attempt to fill their beds and downsize available treatment beds, if this situation is not remedied quickly.

Other emergency options include:

Placement Options

There are a variety of placement and support options for children and foster families. These include: Kinship Care, Relative Guardianship, Traditional Foster Care and Residential and Non-Residential Therapeutic Treatment options.

It is mandated by the state that a child be placed in the least restrictive environment possible with permanency of placement as the goal. Currently, children are moved an average of 3.5 times while in foster care in Clark County.

Currently there are 294 licensed group homes statewide, 206 (70%) of which are in Clark County. All providers must meet NAC 424 group home licensing standards as well as additional requirements for providers of therapeutic care. In addition, therapeutic care providers are required to develop treatment and discharge plans.

While there are a variety of issues that need to be addressed to “fix” the foster care problem in Clark County, the number one answer given by all respondents is that “We need more foster care families for kids.” To this end, National Foster Care Month created a fact sheet about what makes foster parents come in and stay that describes the ways to attract and retain curious potential foster families. The county began a recruitment plan in 2005 that resulted in a large increase in inquiries from prospective foster parents.

While the county notes that over 200 new foster care licenses have been issued since the campaign began, according to interviews, lack of proper staffing and training is having an impact on processing the foster care applications in a timely manner. County staffing issues noted above are likely contributing to, as one interviewee noted, “High on the front end, but low on the back-end” phenomena. Staff being overtaxed coincides with the Child Welfare Institute’s Observations and Recommendations from the Management Review of CFS. See Attachment #1.

Support and Advocacy

There are a variety of support and advocacy organizations working on issues related to foster care. A few are listed below.

Conclusion

There are many avenues that this Task Force might take to impact this highly complex arena. Addressing every issue is less likely to meet with a successful outcome. Rather, the consulting team recommends that the task force might focus in on a more narrow scope, including areas where it is most likely to have impact, and at the highest level where it can wade in on.

There are a variety of variables at play that affect how individual organizations and agencies are choosing to pursue their goals. Money is a factor that can’t be ignored as organizations try to keep their doors open at the same time they do their best at actualizing their mission. Heavy increases in need, cuts in federal, state and county funding as well as transitions in systems are playing themselves out. Time is of the essence to ensure that children in need do not fall through the cracks.

Ultimately, with the child as the focus, this group can find the key areas to have impact on this important issue. While Clark County is growing astronomically, the number of children in the state in the foster care system is still comparatively small (in 2001, 44th in the country)³, this work can provide the foundation from which Clark County can continue to grow and provide needed services in this area.

³ Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System.